{"id":487,"date":"2014-06-13T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/blog\/?p=487"},"modified":"2021-08-02T05:00:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T05:00:25","slug":"ah-wisdom-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/ah-wisdom-age\/","title":{"rendered":"If I Could Turn Back Time: 4 Things I Would Tell My Younger Jacked Up Self"},"content":{"rendered":"

As they say, wisdom comes with age, and it is true. It is through experience, and spending more time with \u2018us\u2019 that we learn those important life lessons that turn us into better people, make the various crap we encounter easier to deal with, and let the \u2018real\u2019 us shine through without as much worry about what other people will think.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, that certainly isn\u2019t the only way to \u2018enlightenment.\u2019 I have come across numerous younger people who have the most amazing perspectives born of the adversity they have faced in their lives, whether it be a serious illness, living in an area rife with violence, political instability and all manner of suffering, or experiencing some sort of traumatic event.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many ways, I am the same person I have always been, but in other respects, I have changed dramatically. My interest in personal development was a main driving factor. I am a pretty self-reflective person very in touch with my emotions, and always giving very deep thought to what drives my beliefs and behaviors, and what I can do to become a happier, healthier person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes I wonder how differently my life would have turned out had I started on this path earlier; I think I would have saved myself a lot of suffering, and my life would have started being awesome a whole lot sooner.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, then I think..well, can\u2019t do anything about that now. And, I\u2019m sure many of the things I experienced that were borne of my \u2018poor\u2019 outlook on life, bad decisions, and the like played integral roles on my path. I venture to say everything turned out the way it was supposed to. So, I try not to focus too much on things I can\u2019t change.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, I often find myself thinking if I could go back and meet up with a younger version of myself, what would I say to her? What little nuggets of wisdom would I want her to know right now? And of course, this information is applicable to anyone at any age. It is never too late to start being a happier person, or improving your life. But, the sooner we start, the better, that\u2019s for sure!<\/span><\/p>\n

Have a Little(a LOT) Faith<\/span><\/h2>\n

Nothing has produced as profound an impact on my life as developing stronger faith. I don\u2019t mean religious faith, but just a general sense of knowing good things can happen to you if you believe they will; that the Universe is a friendly place that will conspire with you to bring you what you want, often in ways we can\u2019t even begin to figure out, so resist the urge to try. It’s hard..I know.
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We are so conditioned to think logically, and we always want \u2018proof.\u2019 Sure, these things have their place in our world, but I gotta say, if you rely too heavily on them, you are really missing out on some great stuff<\/em><\/strong>. Once I opened myself up to more empowering beliefs, set specific intentions for what I wanted to bring into my experience, and worked on feeling good and nurturing this \u2018faith,\u2019 my world changed in ways I could have never imagined. That was \u2018proof\u2019 enough for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn to be more open. Realize our understanding of our reality is severely limited, not everything can be explained, and just because something doesn\u2019t make sense logically <\/em>doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be a possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Be So Afraid of Discomfort<\/span><\/h2>\n

One of the things that have aided me most in living life on my terms was the ability to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Once I got a clearer idea of how I wanted to live, and who I wanted to be, it became glaringly obvious I needed to make some major changes, and do quite of bit of work on my belief system.<\/span><\/p>\n

The things that we want most in life, almost always, lie on the other side of an uncomfortable decision. Not being fully confident, feeling scared (or absolutely freaking terrified), worrying about what others will think of you and doubt are all par for the course. I think sometimes people take these as some sort of \u2018sign\u2019 that you shouldn\u2019t proceed, that if you don\u2019t\u2019 feel 100 percent good, you may be making a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing could be further from the truth. There are very few people who are so confident and wise they don\u2019t grapple with this discomfort. Getting to where I am today involved me making a lot of uncomfortable decisions, and feeling not so great a lot of the time, but I powered through it because I knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. So many of us are not living the life we want or being the person we want to be because of the fear of this discomfort that comes with making bold choices. If you can learn to sit with it, the ways in which you can change your life will amaze you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honor Who You Are<\/span><\/h2>\n

Sadly, truly being ourselves and living as we wish to live is one of the hardest things to do. That is kind of crazy when you think about it. But, it is understandable to see how this comes about. We grow up in a certain family, religion, society, culture and country where particular norms, beliefs and ideas of what is \u2018right\u2019 and\u2019 wrong\u2019, and \u2018appropriate\u2019 and \u2018inappropriate\u2019 are constantly pounded into our head.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as time goes on, all of this gets rooted very deeply. We get wrapped up in a lot of \u2018shoulds\u2019 and it is easy to get swept up in a life we come to discover we actually never wanted. Denying our real self, and how we actually want to live our life, creates a lot of internal discord that can make for a very unhappy and frustrated existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, actually doing what we want can make us feel pretty uncomfortable too, which is why a lot people never take the leap. But, I can tell you one thing. All the inner turmoil\u00a0 we may experience from following our heart, being true to ourselves and all jazz, pale in comparison<\/em><\/strong> to what gets stirred up when we don\u2019t allow the true us to rise to the surface, live to please others and meet their expectations, try to fit in, or pursue what we are taught to believe we \u2018should\u2019 want.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you are being true to yourself, all the crappy stuff that you may experience is weakened by the fact you are doing the things that make you happy; you have given some serious thought to what you want, and that bolsters your confidence in the path you have chosen, and the decisions you make, so other people\u2019s criticisms and judgments carry less weight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fool yourself into thinking not rocking the boat, avoiding conflict with others and all the \u2018benefits\u2019 you may derive from being someone you\u2019re really not are preferable. Honoring who I am hasn\u2019t always been easy, but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Compare Yourself to Other People and Let Your Path Unfold as It Will<\/span><\/h2>\n

It is hard not to compare ourselves to other people, and I can only imagine the additional mental suffering I would have experienced if Facebook and other forms of social media were as prevalent as they are now.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember so much turmoil resulting from comparing myself to others. Compared to me, so many people I knew seemed to have their \u2018shit together,\u2019 or were doing so much better than I was. And, like most of us do, I assumed they must have been happier than I \u2014whether that is true is something we can never really know,<\/em> so I have gotten better at not doing that as much.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paying too much attention to what everyone else is doing will keep you from carving out the right path for you. <\/em>You will start suffering from a major case of the \u2018shoulds,\u2019 and end up doing things you probably don\u2019t really want to do, even though you will try very hard to convince yourself that you do want to do them.<\/em><\/strong> When everyone else is doing things a certain way, it is easy to trick yourself into thinking that’s the \u2018right\u2019 thing to do, and what you may want is \u2018wrong.\u2019 But there is no such thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let your path unfold as it will; constantly evaluate what is happening to see where you need to shift gears, but be patient. Enjoy the journey a bit more. Don\u2019t worry so much about what everyone else is doing. It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For the record, I am far from having mastered these lessons, and there are parts of me that still challenge these truths. But, I have come a long way baby. If you can work on embracing these truths, you have no idea the degree of change you can make in your life. Things that seem impossible now will seem possible; you will take greater responsibility for your life, and greater control. Things will just get better, and you will be happier, and isn’t that the core thing we are all after?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As they say, wisdom comes with age, and it is true. It is through experience, and spending more time with \u2018us\u2019 that we learn those important life lessons that turn us into better people, make the various crap we encounter easier to deal with, and let the \u2018real\u2019 us shine through without as much worry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[12,36,6,17,68],"class_list":["post-487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness","tag-adversity","tag-faith","tag-happiness-2","tag-individuality","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livelifemadetoorder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}